Life isn't funny, it only appears that way

Society and Culture

It takes two to fuel corruption, the corrupter and the corruptee and just like the chicken and the egg no one knows for sure who came first but many are glad they are both here. I often wonder what Trinidad and Tobago would be like without corruption. Would there be as many high-price condos, Benz, Beamers, Jaguars, Audis, Porsches, Range Rovers, highways, box drains, flights to the US, high foreign exchange demands, happiness and scantily clad women on the scene. Would there even be a national stadium much less a big abandoned one down South. Would the churches even get as much forgiveness money and the millions to thank their gods for the wealth?

Corruption is a striving industry in Trinidad and Tobago and it is many things to many people and everything to some politicians. It is the way some public servants can face wealthy business men without the shame of overdue mortgage payments and middle-class poverty hanging over their heads. Corruption is possibly nature’s way of leveling a playing field or building an airport. It is always good to speak out on corruption and probably almost as good as getting away with it. The institutions to prevent or discourage corruption in this country are incorruptible and without the boosterless brakes they provide, corruption would not be as sophisticated as it is today.

The politicians like to suggest on the political stage that without corruption there will be more money for schools, teachers, poverty and drugs but without corruption there might not be a single person willing to get into politics. Corruption brings hope to not only the politician, the businessman, and the public servant, but to the nation and the better investigative journalists. Corruption not only feeds us, it entertains us on Sunday. It provides legal fees to half-dead lawyers and their lawyer friends. It gives the underpaid lawyers in the DPP’s office more work than they can handle. It is probably the predicted growth in the corruption industry which prompted the building of a huge law school down south. Corruption is addictive and any attempt to stop it will cause bribes to be paid to unstop it. Like fleas and ticks corruption is nearly impossible to get rid of and sucks our blood to stay alive.

This is an addictive song and video for FIFA World Cup 2010 and you would expect nothing less for the World Cup and from Coca-Cola. The World Cup 2010 is being held in South Africa and starts in a few days. It will be available on TV in Trinidad and Tobago in HD and hopefully in English only on Directv. Standard definition will be available on one of the local stations.

This version of the song was sung by K’naan featuring Nancy Ajram. K’naan is from Somalia and Namcy Ajram is from Lebanon. The name of the song is Waving Flag which was written by Keinan Abdi Warsam (K’naan), Peter Hernandez, Philip Lawrence, and Jean Daval. Waving Flag or waving anything in the air is something the people of Trinidad and Tobago can identify with easily.

Waving Flag Lyrics (Original Song)

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

Born to a throne, stronger than Rome
But Violent prone, poor people zone
But it’s my home, all I have known
Where I got grown, streets we would roam
But out of the darkness, I came the farthest
Among the hardest survival
Learn from these streets, it can be bleak
Except no defeat, surrender retreat

So we struggling, fighting to eat and
We wondering when we’ll be free
So we patiently wait, for that fateful day
It’s not far away, so for now we say

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

So many wars, settling scores
Bringing us promises, leaving us poor
I heard them say, love is the way
Love is the answer, that’s what they say,
But look how they treat us, make us believers
We fight their battles, then they deceive us
Try to control us, they couldn’t hold us
Cause we just move forward like Buffalo Soldiers

But we struggling, fighting to eat
And we wondering, when we’ll be free
So we patiently wait, for that faithful day
It’s not far away, but for now we say

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

(Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhhh Ohhhh)
And everybody will be singing it
(Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhhh Ohhhh)
And you and I will be singing it
(Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhhh Ohhhh)
And we all will be singing it
(Ohhh Ohh Ohh Ohh)

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

When I get older, when I get older
I will be stronger, just like a Waving Flag
Just like a Waving Flag, just like a Waving flag
Flag, flag, Just like a Waving Flag.

Economist Mary King wrote in the Trinidad and Tobago Express on November 30th 2009 “In this recession or whatever, the Government has not reduced its spending to fall in line with its income. Its income from the energy sector was TT$25.7 billion in 2007-2008, TT$11.7 billion in 2008-2009 and is expected to be TT$7.7 billion in 2009-2010.” That is a pay-cut of over 66.667%. She went on to explain that the Government is borrowing TT$ 13 billion to continue its spending habits on, I assume, things like flagpoles, scholarships for the boys and girls and The Chinese.

I am no economist or doubles man but the situation looks bleak and since the Government is more into saying things like “the sky is not falling,” “no Private Jet at this time, check me back after CHOGM,” “So what,” “we will not go into a recession. The check clear yet?” and “One more Baily bridge, please” I am not hopeful for the country past Ole Years Day. This shortfall of taxes from its main foreign exchange earner along with Ministers who don’t know their butt from their PM, indicates that the TT dollar might soon be worth less, if not worthless. Hops bread will be the new Miami condo.

With the recent revelations about the handing out of scholarships as if the money belonged to a political party, I would say somebody or bodies should be jailed for the rest of their natural life or lives. People are fed up of the incompetence, arrogance, squandermania, favoritism and spitefulness of this Government to the point where people are now smiling less coherently.

If the price of oil, gas, urea, ammonia and methanol don’t go up substantially and very soon, we will shortly be seeing a Trinidad and Tobago that resembles Curepe Junction on a Saturday morning; hookers and no police and all.

Yes, CHOGM was a resounding success with all the aircrafts and people destined to leave Trinidad and Tobago now out of the country. Sorry if I sound like I don’t like world leaders, journalist dollars and simplemindedness but it’s just that I am fed up of people making statements out of politeness rather than knowledge.

Every report on the outcome of CGOGM could have been written weeks, months or years before the first bowl of corn soup was served at the Port of Spain Hyatt. I am sure most citizens of the Commonwealth did not even know there was a CHOGM and those who knew were simply glad their leader was not around for the weekend. The calling of the 2009 CHOGM a success was probably written on the very the day one crazy man with an inferiority complex chip on his shoulder decided to hold the meeting at the country’s expense, not his.

There were no surprises at CHOGM, the Queen had a ball and world leaders were impressed. Both leaders and their current wives loved the culture and think people should be allowed to drum as much as they want. All found the natives hospitable and the natives they saw in person were not naked, unlike some on the Internet. The Aussies, with boats and helicopters still on their minds, honored an honorable citizen. The only thing that CHOGM did for citizens of this country was to send the fed up level well above 69% but still far away from the instability level of 96.73%. I want my hospital bed, community centre and private jet now.

As is normal with international gatherings of world leaders and hot air, a group who knows Trinidad and Tobago better than any foreign or local politician has taken out a full-page ad to alert leaders about impostors amongst their midst. Impostors who scarcely understand the game of cricket despite living in the West Indies for too long. I am not fed up as I am numb. I don’t blame the government for their arrogance towards citizens because arrogance is a byproduct of ignorance and stupidity, not the cause. Politicians are part of society – not the best part though – and have evolved into what they are today because they were misguided into thinking they have the divine right to do as they please, as if Trinidad and Tobago was not a democracy. We have a leader, when armed with two lines of data, thinks he has volumes of knowledge but what he really has is a misunderstanding of public sentiment and a most compliant police service who will protect and serve only one master.

The Prime Minister has asked me and the other citizens to be supportive of CHOGM (pronounced chewing gum) which might include no negative blogging or making fun of it. The Prime Minister has also asked me, along with other gullible citizens, to look out for foreign investments after CHOGM as investments might be so small we all have to keep our collective eyes open for it. Even if we don’t get CHOGM investments because of traffic, crime, flooding and school children regularly killing each other with 10-inch kitchen knives, we will be happier because of CHOGM starting Monday. Some citizens have already benefited from CHOGM with carefully orchestrated economic activity thrown their way. “Just get it now, I don’t want to know the price. The Queen coming, and Sarkozy too” one organizer was heard whispering on the phone to a friend. “Sarco who? But anyway, it expensive” said the friend. “So what! You ever hear about the new property tax!” the organizer snickered.

The Queen and other major people will be coming for CHOGM but very few will drive on a traffic road or tour our shanty towns. Very few will meet a normal citizen or have any recollection of our country’s name after Sunday lunch. How can we benefit by the arrogant, head-laughing-stock flying in via jet from fifty something countries, gathering under one roof to talk about polar ice and eat corn soup that was made in an aluminum pot.

Yes, most citizens still think CHOGM is a few-hundred-million dollar joke and will not benefit citizens in any way. Most see CHOGM and the big flagpole as a drain on our scarce foreign exchange and the reason for the increased property tax. Maybe most of the benefits of CHOGM will come in the not too distant future as the Treasury is confirmed empty and the Government increases another tax. Maybe the real benefits of CHOGM will be felt when the Government starts its final plunder for dollars to buy a private jet by attacking those once stable pension funds with their party-backers-financiers. “So what!”

Until recently, Trinidad and Tobago was not a force in the porn production industry but with recent “accidental” successes, our GDP looks set to grow, or at least bulge, in the coming months.

I have been reading for sometime that Trinidad and Tobago is the #1 country for porn searches per capita and knowing Trinis, I am sure that is “free porn.” I don’t have any stats but how many people in this country would pay for online porn? On the other hand, South Korea is a country that is not as God fearing or cheap as Trinidad and Tobago with each South Korean (adult, I assume) spending $US526.76 each year on porn which means South Korea spends over $US25 billion annually to have a damn good time. It appears that South Korea is a country that puts its money where its mouth would like to be. Maybe Trinidad and Tobago secretly spends on porn and that is why there is a shortage of foreign exchange to buy CDAP drugs, hospital beds and private jets.

Is porn really that popular in Trinidad and Tobago and if so, why? I have no doubt that porn is popular all over Trinidad and Tobago but that popularity is part of being a young nation and the young is preoccupied with sex. Another reason porn might be popular in Trinidad and Tobago is due to our smallness (geographic) and now have a few dollars, we can afford more Internet connections, thus opening more eyes to a world of exciting possibilities on weekends. Maybe Health Minister Narace will tackle porn after he conquers sweetness and health. I suppose porn is used only to point in the right direction, but porn should never be the final destination or reason for cramps.

aka_lol is an engineer by profession and by choice. As far as sports are concerned aka_lol supports the West Indies Cricket team - World Twenty20 Champions 2012.

Aka always says: "My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so" ~Charles J. Ingersoll~

aka quotes

Corruption is possibly nature’s way of leveling a playing field or building an airport. ~aka_lol

It is this continuous enrichment of the chosen minority which has angered all of us and if this blatant “thiefing” by the People’s Partnership is not stopped and remedied then the uneasiness will continue.~aka_lol

I hope this Government is able to understand what the writing on the wall is saying and it is not saying “thanks for all the box drains.” ~ aka_lol

The Police will not force the country to its knees even if it has the ability to do so on any morning they choose to go into self-service mode. ~aka_lol

Without condoms and common sense we don’t stand a chance ~ aka_lol

It can be said that sexiness is what celebrities start with and a book deal is what they end up as ~aka_lol

The Queen is Coming, No More Flooding!! ~aka_lol

We are more entertained by Commissions of Enquiries than troubled by them ~aka_lol

...stupid people need to be restrained before the country slips into that septic tank of no return ~ aka_lol

We are a population that wants to stop fighting with our elected Government and selected President and start worrying about how much of the Heritage Fund will be used for conferences and bribes ~aka_lol

A sex tape is now like a cell phone, everybody has one and some even have one with each service provider ~ aka_lol

Small minds victimize a lot ~ aka_lol

There is only one thing which a man can stick his finger in that feels better than sticking it in election ink on Election Day ~ aka_lol

What ever the truth is, a Kindle price should always be lower than the hardcover price because that is what Kindle buyers have come to expect and enjoy ~aka_lol

"We ordering pork for those who don’t eat beef." I said. That was when the screaming started ~aka_lol~

Governments like to claim they are transparent but like some underwear, never transparent enough to please the man in the street ~aka_lol~

Governments govern people therefore people must govern governments ~aka_lol~

...the Bandits Association have nothing against people making an honest dollar since it was the honest dollar from the man in the street that keeps their members happy and well fed ~aka_lol

About Engineers

An engineer is someone who is good with figures, but doesn't have the personality of an accountant.
- An Arts graduate's view of engineers-

An engineer is someone who washes his hands before going to the toilet.
- Anonymous-

There are three possible roads to ruin - women, gambling and technology. The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technology.
- Georges Pompidou -

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If
your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them
down people's throats. - Howard Aiken, IBM engineer -

copyright

aka_lol thinks it should be obvoius that the original content of this blog is copyrighted by the owner, aka:aka_lol and may not be reproduced without permission. The content not created by aka_lol belongs to its owners. Maybe you are wondering who in their right mind will ever want to copy anything from this blog. I am wondering that as well, but having the right mind isn't as common as you may think.

Cool Quotes

"He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated."

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Each religion, so dear to those whose life it sanctifies, and fulfilling so necessary a function in the society that has adopted it, necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself.

"You can't disprove the theory of God. The power of science is uncertainty. Everything is uncertain, but science can define that uncertainty. That's why science makes progress and religion doesn't."

~Lawrence Krauss~

"O Lord, I want to thank you that I was born in the West and not some other God-forsaken place, and that I was able to become a Christian by default. I'm thankful that I don't have to think hard about what I believe. I can accept without a second thought everything that's fed to me, and that I can support the status quo with a clear conscience without interrupting my comfortable way of life. You've made me what I am today without any effort on my part. I haven't had to think, question or change a thing, and for that I'm truly grateful."

~David Hayward~

As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers

~Robert G. Ingersoll~

Whenever we teach our children that groundless faith is a virtue, we pave the way for groundless violence

~Carrie Poppy~

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

~Epicurus~

Nearly every American will know of more atheists at the end of 2011 than they do today, as coming out as an atheist becomes cool. Yes. Cool

~David Silverman~

I am proud to have been in a business that gives pleasure, creates beauty, and awakens our conscience, arouses compassion, and perhaps most importantly, gives millions a respite from our so violent world.

~Audrey Hepburn~

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit us to give any of it away to imaginary beings.

~Friedrich Nietzsch~

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

Mae West

One way to stop a runaway horse is to bet on him

~Jeffrey Bernard~

When you think about it, our politicians do play god, in the sense that they're not believed in by the vast majority of the public any more, they haven't done anything demonstrably useful for absolutely ages, and they keep employing members of their own family in influential positions. I'm not saying Jesus wasn't the best man for the job, I'm just saying it would have been nice if there had been a little more transparency in the recruitment process.

~Andy Zaltzman~

Organised religion is most concerned with self-preservation

~Adam Rutherford~

It's not God I worry about. It's the self-important, pompous, power-seeking old fossils who claim to speak for him

~Anonymous~

Grief is the price we pay for love.

~Queen Elizabeth II~

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation

~Sam Harris

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance . . . Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

~Sam Harris~

My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so.

~Charles J. Ingersoll~

There is no need for us to gather every day, or every seven days, or on any high and auspicious day, to proclaim our rectitude or to grovel and wallow in our unworthiness. We atheists do not require any priests, or any hierarchy above them, to police our doctrine.

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office

~ Covert Bailey~

Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

~Richard Dawkins~

Religion is ultimately dependent on belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgements that happen after we die. It therefore has no reality check and it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self-correction ~Greta Christina

I believe in the religion of reason - the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world.

~Robert G. Ingersoll

Religion has nothing to do with morality, and is all about power fueled by superstition ~ Anonymous

The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the actions and motives of others. What have the different sects, creeds, doctrines in religion been but so many pretexts set up for men to wrangle, to quarrel, to tear one another in pieces about, like a target as a mark to shoot at?

~ William Hazlit – On the Pleasure of Hating

We have tried for over a thousand years, as a species, teaching people that killing people and holding others below yourself, and being indifferent to the suffering of others was wrong because God said so. I think we can firmly conclude that that strategy was a dismal failure. Instead, the zeal created by religious conviction has led people to hurt others in the name of God.

~ M. LeBlanc

If proselytisers had genuine faith they would at least tone down the proselytism. Surely the God they believe in has the power, hypothetically speaking, to move the hearts of unbelievers without their having to be argued, bribed, or bludgeoned into doctrinal submission first.

~ Barbara O'Brien

Inspired by the Pope's recent call to remember our country's Christian roots I was wondering which particular roots we should return to. Burning Protestants or hanging Roman Catholic priests? Requiring Dissenters to live 10 miles from the City of London, or Roman Catholics 5 miles? And if we decide to execute the Archbishop of Canterbury should we burn him like Cranmer or behead him like Laud?

~ Mark Francis

Coming out as an atheist can have serious real-world consequences. Parents get denied custody of their children for being atheists. People get harassed and vandalized by their neighbors for being atheists. Teachers get suspended for being atheists. Teenagers get harassed and suspended from school for being atheists. Politicians whip up anti-atheist fear to try to get elected. (And that’s just in the US. I’m not even talking about parts of the world where atheism is a crime, punishable by imprisonment or death.)

~ Greta Christina

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning

~ Bill Gates

Morality is not the monopoly of any faith: an atheist can be more ethical than a religious person. At the end of the day, what matters is that humans behave with consideration and decency, and avoid imposing their beliefs on others

~ Irfan Husain

The greatest intellectual framework that the human intellect has ever generated is the scientific method. On so many levels, it has freed us from the shackles of barbaric, divisive, and infantile superstition. Yet, all presidential candidates parade their faiths as though it were a virtue to believe in virgin births, burning bushes, and flying horses.

~Gad Saad

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

~Susan B. Anthony~

No opinion should be protected from criticism simply by virtue of being religiously held.

~Richard Dawkins~

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

~Bertrand Russell~

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

~Douglas Adams~

The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it.

~Mark Twain~

One can appreciate and treasure the symmetry and grandeur of the ancient Greek Parthenon without needing any share in the cults of Athena or Eleusis, or the imperatives of Athenian imperialism, just as one may listen to Mozart or admire Chartres and Durham without any nostalgia for feudalism, monarchism, and the sale of indulgences.

~Christopher Hitchens~

The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.

~Sam Harris~

We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

~Tariq Ali

In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.

~Sam Harris~

It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.

~Sam Harris~

The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is O.K. as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can’t be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can’t be measured easily isn’t very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can’t easily be measured doesn’t really exist. This is suicide.

~Daniel Yankelovich

The universe is 13.7 billion years old, the Earth 4.6 billion. A mere 2,000 years ago, at a time of great ignorance and superstition, some Middle Eastern men wrote some books. With respect, does it never strike you as absurd to use them as proof of a benevolent and watchful God?

~Anon~

A truly liberal society guarantees the freedom of all religions, but it accepts the tyranny of none. People must be free to live without threat or fear. To say the things, write the words and live the lives they choose. Does that offend some people? Yes, of course. But the price of freedom is the risk of offence. And, for me, that price is always worth paying.

~Ming Campbell~

Religions are, by definition, metaphors after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you - even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all opposition.

~Neil Gaiman~

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

~George Carlin~

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company

~Mark Twain~

O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it...

Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

~Alfred Hitchcock~

Since we are often told that god is ineffable and that it is impossible to know his mind it is quite astonishing the number of people that then proceed to tell you exactly what he thinks.

~Anon~

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.

~Bertrand Russell~

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.

~Dan Rather~

There's an infinite number of things that some people at one time or another have believed in, and an infinite number of things that nobody has believed in. If there's not the slightest reason to believe in any of those things, why bother? The onus is on somebody who says, I want to believe in God, Flying Spaghetti Monster, fairies, or whatever it is. It is not up to us to disprove it.

~Richard Dawkins~

Religion attacks us in our deepest integrity by saying we wouldn't be able to make a moral decision without it, and that a supernatural dictatorship is our only hope. That makes us all into serfs.

~Christopher Hitchens~

Thinkers of the Enlightenment, a set of new intellectual attitudes that remade Western culture in the 17th and 18th centuries, set out to understand the world and themselves through reason rather than religion. Their ideas led to massive advances in science, economics and commerce, the arts and human liberty, which underpin our present prosperity and social freedoms.

~Ayaan Hirsi Ali~

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.

~Bill Vaughan~

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

~Charles Bukowski~

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

~Herbert Agar~

When evidence conflicts with cherished beliefs, most people are happier to explain away even the most compelling data rather than abandon their beliefs.

~Richard Wiseman~

If morality comes from religion, why is it normal for chimpanzees, all tribal peoples and non-believers to feel empathy for others, to practice fairness, and to remain loyal to relatives and friends?

~Anthony Layng~

A strongly held belief does not automatically deserve respect ~ConversationalAtheist.com~

A reluctance to accept the importance of reason is easy to explain. To ignore reason is to avoid a sense of personal responsibility, which makes it easy to explain everything that you see in terms of the tenets of your 'faith', be it religious, political or economic in origin.

~Robert Hall~

Religious fundamentalisms are not only found in every region and religion, but they are also becoming increasingly visible at the international level in, for example, the international human rights system.

~Cassandra Balchin~

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

~Bertrand Russell~

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

~John Maynard Keynes~

My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to help make others so.

~Charles J. Ingersoll~

History: An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.